Metro East school collecting plastic to make bench in honor of Ofc. Snyder

An elementary school in Granite City is collecting plastic to create a bench (Credit: KMOV)

GRANITE CITY, Ill. (KMOV.com) -- A Metro East elementary school is stepping up to honor fallen St. Louis County Officer Blake Snyder.

Students at Maryville Elementary School in Granite City are collecting plastic lids and caps to be made into a blue bench to honor Snyder.

“I used to be best friends with him,” said Samuel Skirball, Snyder’s 6-year-old nephew. “Best uncle, best nephew with him and he would have a good time with me. I want to be a police officer, because I want to make the world a better place.”

Samuel, who is a first grader at Maryville, he says he misses his uncle.

Students need to collect 400 pounds of plastic lids in order to get the blue plastic bench made.

“They’ve been collecting things all year. I think this is something they’re going to see and think, ‘look we’ve collected these caps, we need collected 400 pounds of them and we get a beautiful bench to honor Officer Snyder’ and for the students to see what they’ve collected,” said Jodi Blomme, teacher and recycling coordinator at the school.

There are 450 students at Maryville Elementary. Once all the plastic lids are collected, Blomme and Christy Marana, a first grade teacher, will drive to Indiana.

The teachers will drive the plastic lids to Green Tree Plastics, a company in Indiana that will mix the plastic with other materials to create the bench.

“I just think that everybody needs to realize police officers are regular people just like us, and they have families and loved ones and they’re just out there every day doing their job to protect us,” said Marana.

The bench will be placed on the playground for students to have a place to sit during recess, but it will mean more than that.

“If will make me feel good, it will make me feel good every day. Whenever I’ll look at it I will always go up and see it and I will always play and I will always have a fun good time,” said Skirball.

At 1:30 on Friday, the Granite City mayor will be at Maryville Elementary to give Samuel a proclamation declaring it “Blake Snyder Day.”

An area police wife’s association will also give Snyder’s widow, Elizabeth, an award to remember her husband.

There will also be a balloon release.

“We have a big police presence in our building, we’re very fortunate because we have a lot of students whose parents, uncles, and aunts are members of the police force, not only here in Granite City, but other areas as well,” said Maryville Elementary principal Mark Lull. “Plus we have Samuel Skirball, Officer Snyder’s nephew. So that bench will not only honor Officer Snyder but other officers.”

If you would like to donate your plastic lids and caps you can drop them off at the school located on 4651 Maryville Rd, Granite City, IL.

For a list of the plastic lids and caps they’re collecting click here.